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Book Review: Stealing Roses by Heather Cooper

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Stealing RosesAbout the Book

1862 – Growing up in the small seaside town of Cowes on the Isle of Wight, free-spirited Eveline Stanhope feels trapped by the weight of expectation from her well-to-do family. Her mother and two elder sisters would rather she focus her attention on marrying well, preferably to the wealthy Charles Sandham, but Eveline wants more for herself, and the arrival of the railway provides just the cause she’s been searching for.

Driven by the cherished memories of her late father, Eveline is keen to preserve the landscape he loved so much and becomes closely involved with the project. She forms a growing attachment to engineer Thomas Armitage. But when the railway is complete and Thomas moves on, will Eveline wish to return to the way things were?

Format: Hardcover (320 pp.)    Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 23rd May 2019  Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Publisher | Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Stealing Roses on Goodreads

My Review

Eveline Stanhope makes an engaging central character. She’s independent-minded, intelligent, bookish and has a little bit of a rebellious streak which makes the social expectations that seem to limit her life all the more galling. By the way, who couldn’t love a book in which Eveline, complaining about the confined nature of her existence, is told ‘Anyone who reads widely is a citizen of the world…’.

Slowly, with the grudging agreement of her mother and despite the somewhat aghast reaction of her married sisters, Eveline seeks to expand her horizons. With maid, Jenny, she learns to swim (suitably kitted out in full bathing dress, of course) and starts to study photography. However, it still seems her future is likely to follow the expected course of marriage and motherhood.

The candidate favoured by her mother is Charles Sandham – handsome, rich, charming and well-travelled. Is he too good to be true perhaps? Then there’s railway engineer, Thomas Armitage – a taciturn, plain-speaking Yorkshireman who’s definitely less of a catch as far as Eveline’s mother is concerned.

Initially, Eveline views the coming of the railway to the Isle of Wight as like ‘a monster invading their peaceful world’ so she and Thomas Armitage naturally clash at first. Over time, however, Eveline finds her antagonism to the railway waning as she starts to see the benefits it can bring and the opportunity it offers to exert her independence. As a fan of Michael Portillo’s railway journeys TV series, I was also thrilled to come across the sentence, ‘The Bradshaw timetable was consulted.’

The book offers a candid view of the inferior position of women at this time. Not just Eveline, but Aunt George, forced to make her home with her dead brother’s family or Miss Angell, former governess to the family, now relying on their charity for a roof over her head. Whereas the men are able to get up to all sorts of behaviour. Therefore, I really enjoyed the parts where Eveline starts to take charge. Such as persuading her mother that railway travel is ‘more modern’ and will set her apart from the snooty neighbours as a way of saving expenditure on a new carriage.

The book creates a great sense of the period, such as the descriptions of clothing and meals. ‘There were to be oysters, and fried sole, and red mullet; a shoulder of mutton, and a fricandeau of beef; and a haunch of venison…along with several brace of pheasant.’ It depicts a time of scientific and technological discovery existing alongside ‘Victorian values’ that still held sway when it came to the social order.

A wedding, a misunderstanding, a rapprochement, news of a happy event, romance under the stars and the possibility of a ‘different sort of freedom’ bring the book to a satisfying conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed Stealing Roses and the ending left me thinking I would love to find out, to coin a phrase, what Eveline did next.

Stealing RosesI received an uncorrected proof copy courtesy of publishers, Allison & Busby.  Thanks also to them for the lovely goodies that came with it, pictured right.

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In three words: Engaging, romantic, assured

Try something similar…The Cornish Lady by Nicola Pryce (read my review here)

heather-cooperAbout the Author

Heather Cooper grew up in the north of England and has fond memories corresponding with writers such as P. D. James and Seamus Heaney during her time working at Faber & Faber. She later worked for the National Trust and even for the NHS, but now lives on the Isle of Wight with her partner. (Photo credit: Allison & Busby author page)

Connect with Heather

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WWW Wednesdays – 22nd May ‘19

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WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (hardcover)

It is 1945, and London is still reeling from years of attritional war. 15-year-old Nathaniel and his sister seem to have been abandoned by their parents in a big house in Putney, and the ruined city is a strange Expressionist jungle after the Blitz, which the teenagers use as their playground. The Black Market and petty criminals are thriving and the two children’s eccentric guardians – nicknamed the Moth and the Darter – are busy smuggling munitions through the darkened London streets, or greyhounds from France through the rivers and canals.

When the children discover that their mother has not gone to Singapore as announced, and is actually engaged in perilous work for British Intelligence – and that the Moth and the Darter are protecting them from harm – the novel darkens and deepens into Nathaniel’s search for the truth: for the mother he lost once and may well lose again.

Michael Ondaatje, one of our greatest living writers, surpasses himself with this vivid, thrilling new novel: a classic adventure with a cast of brilliantly-drawn characters on secret missions through the Suffolk countryside and the London blackout, and one boy’s quest to discover his mother – who she was, and who she really is.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Armin (ebook)

Four very different women respond to an advertisement in The Times appealing to “those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine” to rent a small medieval Italian castle for a month.

Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot, the original two respondents, are joined in their act of escape by the youthful Lady Caroline, whose beauty and general melodiousness have become something of a burden to her, and the formidable Mrs Fisher, who insists that everyone think of her “just as an old lady with a stick” as she sets about imposing her will on the rest. Each one is vaguely unsatisfied with their lot and Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot both have marriages of quiet English unhappiness.

The climate and the castle eventually start to have an effect on the four women. Their perceptions shift and they wake up to the love in their lives.

Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor by Rebecca Rosenberg (eARC, courtesy of the author)

One look at Baby Doe and you know she was meant to be a legend! She was just twenty years old when she came to Colorado to work a gold mine with her new husband. Little did she expect that she’d be abandoned and pregnant and left to manage the gold mine alone. But that didn’t stop her!

She moved to Leadville and fell in love with a married prospector, twice her age. Horace Tabor struck the biggest silver vein in history, divorced his wife and married Baby Doe. Though his new wife was known for her beauty, her fashion, and even her philanthropy, she was never welcomed in polite society.

Discover how the Tabors navigated the worlds of wealth, power, politics, and scandal in the wild days of western mining.

Recently finished

The Long Take by Robin Robertson (audiobook)

Walker, a young Canadian recently demobilised after war and his active service in the Normandy landings and subsequent European operations. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and unable to face a return to his family home in rural Nova Scotia, he goes in search of freedom, change, anonymity and repair. We follow Walker through a sequence of poems as he moves through post-war American cities of New York, Los Angles and San Francisco. (Review to follow)

Stealing Roses by Heather Cooper (uncorrected proof copy, courtesy of Aliison & Busby)

1862 – Growing up in the small seaside town of Cowes on the Isle of Wight, free-spirited Eveline Stanhope feels trapped by the weight of expectation from her well-to-do family. Her mother and two elder sisters would rather she focus her attention on marrying well, preferably to the wealthy Charles Sandham, but Eveline wants more for herself, and the arrival of the railway provides just the cause she’s been searching for.

Driven by the cherished memories of her late father, Eveline is keen to preserve the landscape he loved so much and becomes closely involved with the project. She forms a growing attachment to engineer Thomas Armitage. But when the railway is complete and Thomas moves on, will Eveline wish to return to the way things were? (Review to follow)

Tell Me Where You Are by Moira Forsyth (advance review copy, courtesy of Sandstone Press)

Frances spent thirteen years not wanting to hear her sister’s name.

The last thing Frances wants is a phone call from Alec, the husband who left her for her sister thirteen years ago. But Susan has disappeared, abandoning Alec and her daughter Kate, a surly teenager with an explosive secret. Reluctantly, Frances is drawn into her sister’s turbulent life. (Review to follow as part of blog tour)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

Aurelia (Roma Nova #4) by Alison Morton (ebook, courtesy of Random Things Tours)

1960s Roma Nova. Retrained as an undercover agent, ex-Praetorian officer Aurelia Mitela is sent to Berlin to investigate silver smuggling, but barely escapes a near-lethal trap. Her lifelong nemesis, Caius Tellus, is determined to eliminate her. When Aurelia is closing in on him, he strikes at her most vulnerable point – her young daughter.

A former military commander, Aurelia is one of Roma Nova’s strong women, but she doubts in her heart and mind that she can overcome her implacable enemy. And what part does the mysterious and attractive Miklós play – a smuggler who knows too much?

The Lost Shrine (Hills & Barbrook #2) by Nicola Ford (advance review copy, courtesy of Allison & Busby)

Clare Hills, archaeologist and sometime sleuth, is struggling to finance her recently established university research institute along with her long-time friend, Dr David Barbrook. When Professor Margaret Bockford finds the Hart Unit commercial work with a housing developer on a site in the Cotswolds, the pair are hardly in a position to refuse. There is just one slight catch: the previous site director, Beth Kinsella, was found hanged in a copse on-site, surrounded by mutilated wildlife.

Despite initial misgivings, Clare leads a team to continue work on the dig, but with rumours about Beth’s mental state and her claims that the site was historically significant refusing to be laid to rest, and lingering disquiet between local residents and the developers, progress is impeded at every turn. When one of the workers finds something unsettling, Clare suspects there may be more to Beth’s claims than first thought. But can she uncover the truth before it is hidden forever?